The Hon. Harshana Rajakaruna
Harshana Rajakaruna raised concerns about continuing delays in issuing passports, citing a payment receipt for an application lodged on 11 July 2023 and noting that applicants are still receiving appointments up to six months later. He said the appointment system has reduced queues but not solved the underlying problem, and questioned whether the Government, after 7–8 months in office, has taken action to address the delays.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, I have a payment receipt sent to my phone for an application lodged on 2023.07.11. That means two years have passed. Minister, you know there were long queues some months ago which led to media reports and public protests. The public faced serious delays then, and the problem still remains. Even now, when applying, appointments are given after six months. While queues have reduced due to appointments, the core problem remains. People do not apply for a passport expecting to receive it 6–8 months later. Your Government has been in office for 7–8 months. Allow a reasonable 3 months to fix issues, but even after 8 months the system has not been changed and people are still trapped in this problem. Have you addressed this?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 ·No. 1749010823009957 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Harshana Rajakaruna. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 20 May 2025. No. 1749010823009957. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/25767